When you think of Julia Roberts on screen, the first thing that usually comes to mind are romantic comedies like Pretty Woman or My Best Friend’s Wedding. These were the movies that took a rising star and shot her into the stratosphere. Before her big break as the unrealistically gorgeous prostitute, she was an ensemble actress in such films as Mystic Pizza and Steel Magnolias, a memorable part of the cast but not the lead. Pretty Womanchanged that, and for a time, she was at the top of her game. Steel Magnolias and Pretty Woman were both performances she was nominated for at the Oscars, but neither produced a win for her. It wouldn’t be until 2001 when she finally broke through and got her statue, and it took her getting away from her pretty-girl image and tackling a truly dark subject to get that win.
Erin Brockovich was a different side of Roberts than we had generally seen up until this point. The role was foul-mouthed, sarcastic, caustic, and full of empathy, all rolled into one. It also happened to be based on a harrowing true story about a small law firm battling it out with a giant company who had allegedly been poisoning the citizens of a small California town for decades and lying about it to avoid penalties. This is a dark and troubling story with a happy ending that doesn’t tell the whole story because, to be fair, the story is ongoing. A quick Google search will provide you with a long list of further infractions of the law that this company, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), has committed at this site in the years since. It’s enough to make your blood boil.
Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts) is an unemployed single mother of three in the year 1993. Recently injured in a car accident by a doctor who gets off without repercussions because of her bad attitude during the cross-examination, Erin is forced to find work to cover her mounting medical bills. When her lawyer, Ed Masry (Albert Finney), stops returning her calls, she shows up at his office ready to work for him. He insists he has no place for her, but she wears him down and secures a low-paid, no-benefits job.
Erin is given files for a real estate case where the PG&E is offering to purchase the home of Donna Jensen (Marg Helgenberger), a resident of Hinkley, California. Attached to this is some medical records that pique Erin’s interest, and she pays Donna a visit and discovers that Donna had simply kept all of her PG&E correspondence together. She has had several tumors, and her husband has Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was grateful when PG&E always supplied a doctor at their own expense because of, in their own words, the chromium. Erin does some digging into the town water records and finds evidence that the groundwater in Hinkley has been contaminated with the carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, not the safer form of chromium that PG&E has been telling the residents that they are using.
This revelation sparks a deeper investigation into PG&E that will eventually involve more than 600 residents of Hinkley, many more cases of cancer, and a cover-up from the parent company, who knew about the contamination and did nothing but try to hide what they did. Erin throws herself into helping the residents of Hinkley, relying on a friendly neighbor, George (Aaron Eckhart), to watch her kids as she works long hours. Their relationship erodes, though, as she comes across as ungrateful for his help and is too engrossed in her work to see how much she is neglecting her family and her only real friend.
Watching films like this is like an emotional roller coaster for me. There are the highs of the big company getting their comeuppance, coupled with the lows of realizing that no amount of money will ever make up for the irreparable damage done by the chemicals over a long period of time. We are shown a handful of families over the course of the film, but the primary focus is on Donna and her kids. Donna’s records are the ones that kickstart the investigation, and it is Donna whom we will end the film with a personal visit to show us how much her settlement is after the lengthy legal battle. Marg Helgenberger is a recognizable face from television, having starred in the 90s television series China Beach among other things. But her career hasn’t been remarkable since then, focusing a lot on guest appearances and the occasional television movie. She is great here, putting a face to the hundreds of families affected by the alleged negligence of PG&E. I dare anyone to remain dry-eyed during the final scene between her and Julia.
Albert Finney is an actor that I became familiar with much later than I realistically should have. When I first saw Erin Brockovich, I knew him from just one other movie, Annie, a film I saw in theaters as a kid and had on regular rotation all throughout my childhood. Of course, I have since gone back and watched many of his classics and gotten more familiar with his body of work. Here he is falling back on the crotchety old man persona that is reminiscent of his Oliver Warbucks, tempered by a genuine desire to do the right thing while faced with the reality of the legal world. He buts heads with Erin often because he has that real-world experience that she lacks. Her passion for justice and her ability to speak with people complement his legal experience, but there are two things they lack in order to take down the metaphorical giant: enough money to keep pursuing the case and proof that PG&E’s head offices knew of the contamination and covered it up. Had such proof existed, PG&E would have long ago destroyed it.
This is a true story. Because of that, the outcome is never really in doubt. That means a film like this has to make the journey worth the predetermined outcome. This film has the unenviable task of making legal research and investigations interesting to the layperson. In order to do this, the film makes sure that that part is buried behind the real issue, the lives of the people infected; not just Donna and her family, either. We also meet several other families, including one with a young daughter who is obviously ravaged with cancer. We hear about how she loves to dance, but all we see of her is her sitting between her parents, almost motionless, wearing a scarf to hide her hair loss. We see others at a town meeting who bring up the various other illnesses that have plagued their families, but it isn’t until we are introduced to Charles Embry (Tracey Walker) that we get another personal story of the alleged wrongdoings of PG&E. By playing off our empathy we naturally want to see justice served and have a built in bias in this story.
Charles Embry was the man who PG&E charged with shredding the records that included documents that proved PG&E’s corporation headquarters were aware of the contamination and ordered a coverup. When Charles first approaches Erin, she dismisses him as a creeper trying to hit on her. Later, she will run into him again and take a step back and hear what he has to say, and it will make all the difference in their case. His personal story about his brother working in the contaminated water with nothing more than a thin face mask, darkened by blood, is horrendous, and it’s hard to believe a company would be so callous as to let something like this happen, let alone OSHA not getting involved.
Erin Brockovich is a showcase film for its lead actress. Julia Roberts has never been better than she was in this film. As a whole, I have never been that much of a fan of her work. I appreciate it, but often I feel that she is more of a screen presence than an actress. I cannot make that claim about this film. She is transformative in it and carries the weight of this hefty film on her shoulders. She is surrounded by first-rate talent, yet she is never overshadowed. At no point does she get lost in the minutiae and the drama, and we feel for her, even when she is at her most unlikable. This is a home run for Julia Roberts, a home run that she has yet to replicate. The unfortunate reality is that she has never lived up to this role in the twenty-plus years since this film came out and, lately, has only appeared in projects sporadically. Still, that doesn’t take away from this film and just how good she, and the film as a whole, is. This is what all true-story dramas should aspire to be.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, and Stacey Sher
Best Director: Steven Soderbergh
Best Actress: Julia Roberts (won)
Best Supporting Actor: Albert Finney
Best Original Screenplay: Susannah Grant
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Release Date: March 17, 2000
Running Time: 130 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, and Aaron Eckhart
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh
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